In many industries outside of healthcare, the mantra has been 'experience matters' for years. Forrester Research declared we entered the age of the customer in 2010. An era marked by 'empowered buyers demanding new levels of customer obsession.' As consumer technology crept into every facet of our lives, people learned how to find the best products, prices, and every piece of information necessary to make maximally informed decisions about how to spend their money.

As a result, high-performing organizations began to adopt the practice of creating and managing the customer experience. Seemingly overnight, a whole new class of knowledge workers, business processes, and customer experience management technology sprang forth to meet the demands of this new class of consumer behavior.

The organizations who not only survived but thrived have learned customer-centricity is a fundamental strategy for successfully navigating the turbulence of digital transformation. One recent example showed a moderate improvement in customer experience generated an estimated revenue increase of $823 million over three years for a company with $1 billion in annual revenues(1).

This focus on the entire customer experience has genuinely never been more crucial, especially in healthcare. After all, if timely and efficient access to information can mean the difference between routine preventative care and a costly health crisis for an individual patient, then improving access to information must be a strategic priority for any organization considering population health as a metric for success.

Of course, doctors and nurses have always primarily concerned themselves with improving the health of their patients. But they are not on this mission alone, and recent changes in healthcare are bringing the rest of the industry along with them by incentivizing outcomes in intriguing new ways.

For example, under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) providers have the opportunity to receive merit-based pay for improvements to the digital patient experience(2). Specifically, the list of 2018 improvement activities published by the CMS includes the collection and use of patient experience and satisfaction data regarding access to healthcare and engaging patients through implementation of improvements in a patient portal(3).

Our new research on how the top hospitals in the US approach digital indicate the leaders have taken note of these opportunities.

A timely focus on diversity emerges

Next week Connective DX celebrates the release of the latest edition of the annual Hospital Digital Experience (HDX) Index, a report highlighting the digital patient experience at fifteen of the best hospitals in the U.S.

In this edition, we note significant changes in the provider approach to diversity, multi-lingual support, and accessibility. More specifically, the report indicates a tripling in the number of sites offering sitewide language translation and nearly all the providers reviewed this year showed a trend towards simplification of language across each website.

However, the focus on greater inclusion is just a small part of the drive to improve the patient experience across the providers we reviewed. Stanford Health Care, also covered in the HDX, recently introduced the MyHealth App, which we believe is an exceptional example of what a hospital with a focus on the adoption of digital can accomplish in surprisingly little time.

With features designed to improve patient compliance, speed the transfer of relevant clinical information, and increase the patient's understanding and visibility into their care, it goes well beyond mere marketing or appointment setting and impacts the quality of care provided.

As an ancillary benefit, the MyHealth app increases the engagement and loyalty of patients at Stanford Health Care, while increasing their influence and visibility among referring physicians.

Stanford Health Care delivers cutting-edge medical care, and we believe our patients’ digital healthcare experience should be just as innovative and intuitive.

Aditya Bhasin

VP of SoftwareStanford Health Care

The digital team at Stanford is known for treating digital the way a software company does. They proudly share their successes, use the Agile methodology in their approach to production and continuously improve their offerings. Interestingly, being in one of the hottest labor markets for software developers in the world, they must work exceptionally hard to attract and retain top talent.

Unpacking the Hospital Digital Experience Index

At over seventy pages in length, the latest edition of the HDX includes many more insights, trends and examples of how the best hospitals improve their patient experience with digital. If your organization is considering changes to your website, mobile, physician finders or any other aspect of what makes a great digital experience, get your copy today or register for one of our upcoming webinars and get a guided tour with the Connective DX’s lead researcher and author, Dave Wieneke.